Always make sure you are off.
One reporter forgot that golden rule of video conferencing during a virtual media availability with Justin Verlander on Monday, January 13. The reporter noticed that the 41-year-old right-hander appeared to be logged into his wife, model Kate Upton’s Zoom account, and she loudly pointed that out to everyone on the call.
Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey was also on the call, and just as Posey, 37, was answering a question, a reporter’s voice interrupted the call.
“Look at Justin’s name,” the reporter was heard saying, unaware that Posey was interrupting in front of a group of other reporters.
The reporter didn’t speak again after realizing the mistake, and Giants vice president of media relations Matt Chisholm continued the meeting, reminding the group to keep quiet when they weren’t asking Posey and Verlander a question.
Justin Verlander on a Zoom call via MLB Network.
MLB Network/X
Kate Upton and Justin Verlander Relationship Timeline
Verlander was amused by the reporter’s hot mic moment and joked, “I’m going to change it, okay? I’m going to change it.”
The rookie Giants star continued to poke fun at the confusion when he changed his Zoom account name to “JUSTIN VERLANDER (not Kate).”
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Upton and Verlander first met in 2012 while filming a commercial. After dating for several years, Verlander proposed to Upton in 2016, and the couple tied the knot on Nov. 4, 2017 — just days after the baseball pro won a World Series.
The couple has a daughter, Genevieve, born in 2018.
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Kate Upton and Justin Verlander at the 2023 Footwear News Achievement Awards at Cipriani South Street on November 29, 2023 in New York City.
Jamie McCarthy/Footwear News/Getty
An unwitting reporter, NBC Sports’ Taylor Wirth, was able to quickly laugh off this all-too-relatable mistake after the clip made the rounds on social media.
Wirth reposted the clip on X and added a clever meme in response to his viral moment.
All about Kate Upton and Justin Verlander’s daughter Genevieve
The innocent mistake even inspired others to share their unmitigated confusions on Zoom with Wirth. “It happens to the best of us,” one user wrote to the reporter. “At a past job, I said ‘I love you’ as a joke at the end of a Zoom meeting and I thought I was muted. Over 400 people in my company heard it.”
“It doesn’t get any healthier than that,” Wirth replied.
On January 11, the Giants announced that Verlander had signed a one-year, $15 million contract after joining the Houston Astros in 2017.
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